Yoyo the three-legged chihuahua runs sixth Dash for the Beads

Here is one adorable guy who has run every Dash for the Beads 5k since the Mardi-Gras weekend tradition started in 2010.

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Yoyo is an 8-year-old chihuahua who lost one of his hind legs about six years ago after being hit by a car in the Knox-Henderson area. He wound up at Highland Park Animal Hospital, and that’s where Elmwood residents Carrie Shipp Eisthen and her husband, John, found him.

John’s dog had died a couple of years prior, and Yoyo reminded him of his old dog. On their first play date, Yoyo bit John on the nose, but he brought the feisty thing home anyway.

The Eisthens are avid runners, and they frequent 5k and half-marathon races. Yoyo often accompanies Carrie on her training runs, but Dash is the only race he runs.

The vet told Carrie that it’s fine for Yoyo to run so long as he wants to do it, and he certainly does. She says she thinks he’s aware he’s in a race.

“He would prefer for me to run faster,” she says.

It never fails that near the finish of Dash for the Beads, when other runners realize they’re being passed up by a three-legged chihuahua, it adds fuel to their tanks. They do everything they can to beat him out.

But don’t feel bad if Yoyo outruns you this year. Three legs are quite enough for him. And as Carrie says, he thinks he’s a greyhound.